Tag Archives: beethoven

The Knights and Other Nights

Posted on October 27, 2024 by Wendy Lesser

There are eight million music stories in the naked city. Here are three of them: October 24: Last Thursday marked my official return to Carnegie Hall this season, and it helped that I was hearing The Knights. This small, vigorous … Continue reading →

Posted in The Lesser Blog | Tagged Aaron Diehl, beethoven, bela lugosi, birdland, college of the performing arts, dracula, ethan iverson, george gershwin, keith jarrett, michael schachter, peter erskine, peter washington, philip glass, the knights, zankel hall | Leave a comment

Rainy Days and Live Music

Posted on February 5, 2024 by Wendy Lesser

January was a dry spell—not so much in terms of the California winter rains (we had the normal level) but in terms of live concerts I could attend. I wasted away at home, watching endless Netflix serials, some of which … Continue reading →

Posted in The Lesser Blog | Tagged attacca quartet, beethoven, cal performances, caroline shaw, jukka-pekka saraste, paul wiancko, ravel, san francisco symphony, schubert | 2 Comments

Some Notes for Peace

Posted on November 18, 2023 by Wendy Lesser

Like everybody else, New Yorkers are feeling pretty terrible these days. It was with the hope of forgetting about the world’s problems, at least for a couple of hours, that I attended last week’s performance of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto at Geffen … Continue reading →

Posted in The Lesser Blog | Tagged beethoven, new york philharmonic, nikolaj szeps-znaider, stephane deneve | 1 Comment

Open Season

Posted on October 20, 2023 by Wendy Lesser

Every year, when I arrive in New York in early September, I always forget that it’s going to be another month or so before I can regularly start attending the concerts I love. Carnegie Hall, the New York Philharmonic, and the … Continue reading →

Posted in The Lesser Blog | Tagged alice tully hall, beethoven, britten, carnegie hall, chamber music society of lincoln center, chicago symphony, lief ove andsnes, metropolitican opera, new york philharmonic, philip glass, riccardo muti, steve reich, verdi | Leave a comment

Igor Levit in San Francisco

Posted on June 28, 2023 by Wendy Lesser

For those of us in the Bay Area who care about classical music, the last two weeks have mainly been taken up with Igor Levit’s residency at the San Francisco Symphony. I wrote about this marvelous pianist last fall, after hearing him perform all … Continue reading →

Posted in The Lesser Blog | Tagged anne-marie mcdermott, beethoven, brahms, busoni, chamber music society of lincoln center, esa-pekka salonen, frank bridge, fred hersch, igor levit, liszt, mark o'connor, san francisco symphony, shostakovich, wagner | Leave a comment

More Than One Tetzlaff

Posted on March 29, 2023 by Wendy Lesser

Since Christian Tetzlaff is‚ and has been for decades, my favorite violinist in the whole world, I take every available opportunity to hear him. And this has meant that two or three times I’ve been privileged to hear the Tetzlaff Trio—most recently … Continue reading →

Posted in The Lesser Blog | Tagged 92NY, beethoven, brahms, christian tetzlaff, dvorak, kiveli dörken, konzerthaus berlin, kurt weill, schubert, tanja tetzlaff, tetzlaff trio, vladimir jurowski | Leave a comment

Five Nights in Berlin

Posted on December 31, 2018 by Wendy Lesser

For various reasons, Berlin is my favorite city in the world, and one of the reasons is certainly the quality and variety of music it always makes available to me. I spotted a window of opportunity to get there for a week … Continue reading →

Posted in The Lesser Blog | Tagged beethoven, berlin philharmonic, christian gerhaher, gerold huber, hippolyte et aricie, jan lisiecki, komische oper, konzerthaus berlin, love of three oranges, olafur eliasson, prokofiev, rameau, staatsoper-berlin, valery gergiev | Leave a comment

A Month of Great Piano

Posted on November 10, 2018 by Wendy Lesser

The piano is not my instrument, normally. I don’t just mean I never learned to play it (though that too is true: my childhood music lessons were on the violin). What I really mean is that I don’t seek out piano concerts … Continue reading →

Posted in The Lesser Blog | Tagged anne-marie mcdermott, baryshnikov arts center, beethoven, brahms, busoni, carnegie hall, fred sherry, fredric rzewski, haydn, igor levit, inon barnatan, jeremy denk, liszt, mariinsky orchestra, morton feldman, nelson freire, paul lewis, pedja muzijevic, people's symphony concerts, peter serkin, pierre-laurent aimard, schumann, st. lawrence string quartet, tamara stefanovich, ursula oppens, valery gergiev, white light festival, zankel hall | 2 Comments

February Round-Up

Posted on February 28, 2018 by Wendy Lesser

Given that it’s the shortest month of the year, this February contained a surprising number of excellent performances. I will return to some of these at a later point, when I write about them (or aspects of them) in the print … Continue reading →

Posted in The Lesser Blog | Tagged bartok, beatles, beethoven, cal performances, danish string quartet, emanuel ax, ethan iverson, jonathan biss, joshua weilerstein, leonidas kavakos, mark morris, pepperland, san francisco performances, st paul chamber orchestra, yo-yo ma | Leave a comment

Musicians from Marlboro

Posted on January 30, 2018 by Wendy Lesser

I attend a lot of good chamber music concerts, but very few great ones. It’s hard to predict in advance which ones will be top of the line, because so many elements are involved. The musicians have to be good, of … Continue reading →

Posted in The Lesser Blog | Tagged anthony mcgill, beethoven, brahms, cal performances, musicians from marlboro, penderecki | Leave a comment